Potential Sciences, a British startup aiming to unlock the next big advance in how we use AI to design new medicines, has secured backing from Sovereign AI
The investment and access to compute - the processing power needed to run and train AI models - being made available reflects the UK’s ambition to back homegrown companies developing the critical technologies that will drive the modern reindustrialisation of Britain, and the next wave of AI innovation.
Using AI for the design of new chemicals - and discovering new medicines in particular - is opening up new possibilities for tackling diseases like cancer and Parkinson’s, which could offer hope to patients and families across the country. However progress has been held back because AI usually relies on data from slow, costly real world lab experiments.
Potential Sciences are taking a new approach, with an AI model focused on the fundamental laws of physics, rather than previous experimental data. This could make the AI calculations needed to design chemicals 100 times cheaper than at present - unlocking a wave of new discoveries in fields that are currently uneconomical to focus on.
Sovereign AI is the government’s big bet on promising early-stage AI companies to help them grow, scale and succeed from Britain, offering a range of backing to high-potential AI businesses that are starting out on British shores.